Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.340

v1.c5.340

The state of things brought about by this marriage now gave rise to some difficulty. The divine Ṛishi Nārada, the wandering journalist of the Indian heaven comes up and begs the brothers in heartrending words not to quarrel among themselves because of the woman, as the over-fierce Daitya brothers Sunda and Upasunda once had done; and as a warning example he tells them the tale of these demon giants, who held all three worlds in the ban of their rule of terror until the Apsaras Tilottamā through her peerless loveliness so strongly fired them both that they slew one another (i, 209-212). Then the Pāṇḍavas settle it between themselves: if one of us comes to another while the latter is with Draupadī, then he must live in chastity twelve years in the forest.¹ Now one day a Brahman comes who has just had his cows stolen, and sets up a truly priestlike outcry before the rulers forgetful of their duty, the Pāṇḍavas. Arjuna is at once ready to punish, and only wants to fetch his arms quickly. But alas! these are in a room where, at this very moment, Yudhishṭhira is with